


they're burning all the witches (even if you aren't one)

by awesomeaislin



Series: Carry On Countdown 2018 [15]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: DEC 09 - Historical Setting, Kinda fluffy for how depressing the situation is, M/M, Salem Witch Trials, idk I dont know alot of history, whoot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 14:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesomeaislin/pseuds/awesomeaislin
Summary: (loosely) set in the Salem witch trials. Simon and Baz have a bad habit of meeting in the woods in the middle of the night."“Oh yeah, try to stop me, Snow,” Baz taunts. “What are you going to do? Turn me in?” Baz is pretty sure he won’t but if he does, he won't be so upset about it really.“Baz,” He groans again. “Do you have a death wish? What if it’s Mage next time?”"





	they're burning all the witches (even if you aren't one)

**Author's Note:**

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He shouldn’t be out this late. They might figure it out. These are trying times. Girls being accused of being witches. Reverend’s putting girls on trial. Girls being killed. Families being torn apart.

 

Baz really shouldn’t be out this late. He especially shouldn’t be out with Simon Snow out on watch.

 

Reverend Mage has officially lost his mind. Witches don’t exist, and yet he has all of Salem in a frenzy hunting down teenagers and mothers because ‘ _they may be trying to murder us.’_

 

And he has Simon Snow searching the town at night in order to find anymore suspects. He really shouldn’t be out. But he has to visit his mother’s grave. She was one of the first accused, and she put up a fight, but it was to no avail. They drowned her in the lake and suddenly Mage was the only source of “power” in town. Nevermind that his mother wasn’t a witch. Nevermind that this is insane.

 

So yes, he’s out after dark and Snow is already suspicious of him, and this is probably going to be it for him if he gets caught. But really that’s fine. It’s not like he has a very exciting life ahead of him. Marriage to some girl he won’t want, living out some life doing something he’s not excited about, never being happy.

 

Maybe he should just let Snow catch him. If Snow catches him at least he won’t have to spend another day in this misery.

 

“Baz, what are you doing out here?” Speak of the devil, Baz supposes.

 

“Summoning lucifer,” Baz snaps back at him. This is really the dumbest thing he can do, but fuck it. There’s really nothing to gain by taunting him, and everything to lose.

 

“Baz, seriously,” Simon glares at him. “If you don’t tell me what you’re really doing, and let me take you back then I’ll have to turn you in.”

 

“Then just do it,” He sighs. Normally he’d fight. He enjoys fighting Simon. Really he does, but he’s done.

 

“Baz,” Simon tries to reason. Tries being the objective word in that sentence. But Baz isn’t here to be reasoned with.

 

“Seriously, Snow,” Baz says, “I’m done. You’ve taken everything away from me, so turn me in. It’s not worth it.”

“Baz,” Simond demands, “Why are you out here?”

 

Why won’t he just let Baz go? Why won’t he just turn him in? They hate each other.

“Snow, please.”

 

“No.”

 

“Isn’t this your job?” Baz asks.  

 

“I don’t really like my job, anymore,” Simon tells him. Like they’re friends. Like they enjoy each other’s company. But here they are talking like confidantes. Or at least he’s talking like they’re confidantes.

 

“Then quit.”

 

“You know I can’t do that.” And yes, Baz does know that. If Simon were to quit Mage would probably kill him too, and his fiance Agatha, and his friend Penny. Simon wouldn’t make it out.   
  
“Ok, so if you hate your job, and you don’t turn anyone in, then why are people still dying,” Baz asks even though he probably knows the answer. It’s not like Mage has ever been particularly stable.

 

“Mage says he finds people when _he_ patrols at night,” Simon whispers. There’s no one here. He doesn’t have to whisper. “You need to be careful, Baz, I don’t always know when he’s going to be out here.”

 

“It doesn’t matter, what’s one more death?”

 

“Of course it matters,” Simon insists.

 

“Ok, Snow,” Baz rolls his eyes. “Are you going to escort me back to my house then, Mr. Hero?” He’s dripping with sarcasm.

 

“Of course I am,” Simon rolls his eyes back. Baz didn’t know the purest man in town knew how to do that. “Someone has to make sure you don’t get in trouble.”

  


The next day Baz comes back to mourn his mother again even though Snow made him promise not to( _he was crossing his fingers, that’s not a betrayal_ ). Someone needs to be out here mourning, they weren’t witches and they don’t deserve to be forgotten.

 

“Baz,” a familiar voice groans from behind him. Dammit, he thought Snow was more trusting than this. “You can’t keep doing this.”

 

“Oh yeah, try to stop me, Snow,” Baz taunts. “What are you going to do? Turn me in?” Baz is pretty sure he won’t but if he does, he won't be so upset about it really.

 

“Baz,” He groans again. “Do you have a death wish? What if it’s Mage next time?”

 

“Then that’s it,” Baz chuckles. “It’s not that I have a death wish. I’m just not _actively_ avoiding death per se.”

 

“Could you just be careful, please,” Simon asks. He’s always been a bit of a hero. “You can still come here, but only during the day.”

 

“Why do you care so much?” The question slips out before Baz can stop it. He doesn’t like to show what he’s really thinking, but he has to ask.

 

“What?”

 

Snow’s never been eloquent, and Baz doesn’t really expect him to be. He was always the worst in school when they were growing up (Baz was the best, but that hardly matters).

 

“Why do you care so much that _I_ don’t get caught?” Baz asks again because the question is already out there and he might as well get an answer. “In case you’ve forgotten, Snow, you don’t like me.”

 

“I didn’t like you, I don’t l-” He tries to tell him. “Look whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. We both know that those women weren’t witches, and nobody deserves to lose their mother, not even you.”

 

And so it becomes a tradition. Everynight Simon tells Baz he can’t come back, and everytime he does come back. Every night Simon frets about how Baz has a deathwish, and every night Baz mocks him in a new way. In a way it’s fun.

He learns alot about Snow, and Snow learns (slightly less) about him, but it leaves Baz confused. Because really Simon Snow should not be palling around with him in the forest at night. Simon should have turned him in weeks ago, and Simon shouldn’t keep checking up on him.

 

It all comes to a head one night, “What are you doing?” He asks.

 

“We’re talking like always,” Simon laughs.

 

“No what are doing here with me,” Baz tries again. He’s trying to be nice.

 

“What else is there to do? I’m supposed to parole the forest, and you’re only one who is ever out here,” Simon smiles at him, and Baz knows that it’s the dead of night, but he swears he’s looking directly at the sun. “I’ve got to make sure you don’t get into any trouble.”

“But why?”

 

“Because we’re friends.”

 

Baz has to roll his eyes at that because they never talk in public. Not ever. Snow is always with his gaggle of friends or Mage. Baz never goes over to talk to them.

 

“Friends, huh?”

 

“Yes,” Simon nods.

 

“Since when.”

 

“I don’t know, Baz,” Simon says.

 

“You should go,” Baz tells him.

 

“Isn’t that my line?” Simon chuckles.

 

“Really, I don’t want you to be here,” Baz shakes his head.

 

“Here for what?”

 

“I don’t want you here when Mage catches me tonight.”

 

“Baz, no,” Simon insists.

 

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Baz says. He’s thinks he might be crying, but it’s so very cold that maybe it’s just the weather. “I can’t keep seeing people die.”

 

Simon tries to pull him up. Maybe he’s going to try and drag him back to this house. If he goes back to his house then the mage has no chance to find him. Baz knows the Mage will be out tonight, he heard him bragging about it to Agatha Wellbelove’s mother. He was telling her that she should feel safe with him on parole. (As if Simon isn’t enough)

 

“Simon no I’m not-”

 

And suddenly Simon is kissing him. Baz doesn’t know when Simon decided he wanted this. He isn’t even sure when _he_ decided he wanted this, but hell if he isn’t going to enjoy these last moments of his life...

 

But, _shit_ , he can’t Simon get caught doing this. So he swallows his pride and he decides to live another day.

He knows this can’t last, and that as soon as they’re caught they’re both dead. He knows that this will be the end of him, and probably the end of Simon. Or maybe Snow will come to his senses and turn him in to Mage and that will be the end.

 

But maybe it could end well. Maybe they’ll run away. Build a secret life far away. Where noone can find them. And no one can get to them. They’ll bring Snow’s friends and make sure that no one else dies.

 

“Snow,” He pulls away.

 

“Simon,” Snow corrects.

 

“Simon,” Baz smiles. “Lets go before he finds us.”

 

Simon leans him and kisses him again, and then he holds Baz’s hand all the way back, and even though it’s freezing, Baz has never felt warmer.


End file.
